Has anyone tried essential oils?

My sister is really into them and keeps them going in her house most of the time she's home. I have asthma that reacts to stronger smells so I hadn't explored much. But then as this episode developed I realized that I kept going in the bathroom to wash my hands with this Target pink grapefruit soap and then smelling my hands. So I bought dish soap in the same smell. But I kept wanting to smell it all the time. I even looked for laundry detergent with the smell but all I found was super expensive. So I gave up and cashed out my online earnings and got a diffuser and pink grapefruit oil and also pink grapefruit bodywash (yes, my house smells like grapefruit which I can't even eat with the valium and I don't care). Last night was the first time I used it as well as the first time with the bodywash and it may have been a coincidence but I relaxed a little more in the time it was on, I fell asleep faster and with less valium and I slept more soundly.

Just curious if anyone else has had a response to these? I'm still a little skeptical of the whole thing beyond I know it smells good but it did seem to help. And craving that smell is better than craving cigarettes which I did in a prior episode which was pretty weird since I have never smoked a single puff of a cigarette in my life.

Smell is huge.. If I am in panic mode I have numerous ones for a calming effect , if I am dragging I have numerous ones that help get me moving.

Smell like music can help us ground, relax and focus.

It's usually in learning Bipolar 101.. I am glad your finding it helpful.

I've never had a smell work before. I've tried but nothing has ever had this effect.

I have found some that are calming and help me relax before sleep and my daughter gave me one with citrus and it makes me feel more alert and awake. I'm not a complete believer in some to the things they claim but I find some helpful.

I use essential oils and flower essence I swear by both. I like Lavender is the best for anxiety I just put a dab under my nose I'm also newly addicted to bergamot for depressive states it helps lift my mood quite a bit.

This is absolutely how I feel. I definitely will not have one for every occasion ro symptom like my sister and I'm only going to trust my own response. This grapefruit thing is supposed to be anything for calming to antidepressant to somewhat energizing. for me it is completely calming but I know that only because I've been trying to smell it all the time for 2 weeks. The oils are too expensive to experiment a lot. I won't even put them on my skin probably although the migraine mix is tempting if not too overwhelmingly minty since mint and migraine has been known to make me sick.

Lavendar is too strong for me. I used to use it to disinfect scubs and had this tiny tube of it and every time I used it I hated it.

The smell of coconut makes me really happy. And the smell of patchouli calms me right down. The smell of coffe and cigarettes feels very soothing, because it reminds me of when I was a child, and all the men in the family sat around and smoked and drank coffee (inside the house, nobody thought twice about that back in the 70s).
There is defenately something very powerful about smell.

I have lavender for night calming. I have frankinscence and myrrh I use for meditation or to reflect alone when I'm troubled. On anxious days I wear it and carry it on me. Lemon is energizing

Yes, peppermint or lemon by day and lavender or sandalwood by night.

So it looks like there is some variation in what people respond to and how. I was curious about that. I know that there are many smells that bring back old memories and so that seems to mean that different people are going to have different associations with different smells which is why the esential oils thing never made a lot of sense to me. Plus I just haven't responded much to anything I've tried. Lavendar is only soothing to me if it is artificial. I just gave my mom a whole bottle of lavendar detergent I bought accidentally because the smell of it fills my teeny house and is overwhelming. Mostly though I associate lavendar oil with disinfecting scrubs and using a really powerful oil that was so strong that I hated to even get it on my hands. As in eveything people differ although there does seem to be some agreement and my relaxing grapefruit probably isn't to most people (just like how meds work for me! )

I think of cleaning when I smell lavender oil also. I use it in my homemade detergents. I hear from everybody how it is soothing and all kinds of wonderful, but all it makes me think of is detergent!

Lavender works like a charm for me. It makes me very relaxed and calm.

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I guess smell affect us all a bit different. I go and stick my nose in my jar of coconut butter sometimes

My first Christmas on my own I had a fake tree and grew up with real ones. I did EVERYTHING trying to recreate the pine scent. I got this spray that went on the tree and worked for 3 minutes, candles, I don't know what all. To me Christmas means smelling pine. (And now that my sister is the one with the only real tree in our family I really love going to her house for Christmas day). So much memory with so many smell.s

I have the same problem around christmas! Miss the pine-scent! I have ended up with a compromise. I fill vases with branches and then I get a little of the smell, and the feeling of having something "real" in my rooms.
Another trick is to fill a pot with water ( 3-4 cups), put it on your stove, and put in 2-3 pinecones, 1-2 sliced apples, 3 cinnamon sticks. Low heat on the stove, and just leave it on for a while. Smells great, it is all-natural, and inexpensive too. Merry X-mas!